The Department of Kazakh Literature and Theory of Literature has broad scientific ties. Annually teachers, doctoral students and undergraduates study at leading foreign universities, research institutes and centers, take part in international scientific conferences and in the work of various scientific communities, and the editorial boards of interuniversity collections. The professors of the department act as reviewers and co-directors of doctoral dissertations, defended in the countries of near and far abroad.

The Department activ cooperates and maintains scientific relations with leading European universities and universities of the CIS:

- Saint-Petersburg State University (Russia);

- M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University;

- Institute of Russian Literature of Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia);

- Tyumen State Oil and Gas University (Russia);

- Institute of Philology of the SB RAS (Russia);

- Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages (Uzbekistan);

- Ch. Aitmatov Institute of Language and Literature of National Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyzstan);

- Pyatigorsk State Linguistic University (Russia);

- International Academy of Literature and Art of Ukraine (Ukraine);

- Great Vytautas University (Lithuania);

- Granada University (Spain);

- University of Humboldt (Germany);

- Istanbul University (Turkey);

- Gazi University (Turkey);

- Egey University (Turkey);

- University of Brown (USA);

- University of Toronto (Canada);

- University of Pecs (Hungary);

- Western-Hungarian University (Hungary).

Lecture of West-Hungary University's Professor Mikhai Freshli (29 September - 4 October, 2017)

In order to develop and strengthen international cooperation, increasing academic mobility, exchange of experience, elaboration of joint scientific projects of the Department regularly invites well-known foreign scientists from leading universities and research institutes.
The Department maintains relations with such famous foreign scientists-literary critics, as A.A. Akmataliev (Kyrgyzstan), S.A. Kibalnik, I.V. Silantyev (Russia), A.I. Kovtun (Lithuania), N.A. Golikov (Russia), A. M. Kazieva (Russia), W. Schmid (Germany),N. Evdokimova, F. Derrin (USA), N. Yildiz (Turkey), Donna Orwin (Canada), Mikhai Freshli (Hungary), Rafael Guzman Tirado (Spain) and others.

At present, Department of Kazakh Literature and Theory of Literature  is one of the leading in Kazakhstan. In the context of the transformation of KazNU into a national research university, its role and importance in the education system and in the domestic philology as a fundamental department is substantially growing.